Outpost: Infinity Siege

[Paingod]

Made by Chinese developers Team Ranger, this is a hybrid base building & defense / looter-shooter. It's in constant update mode by the developers, and has shifted from "Mixed" at launch on Steam to "Mostly Positive" for recent reviews.

It's no Helldivers, but it's fun so far. I'm at 160 hours so far (with a percentage of that AFK/paused). I think it's worth the $30 if you like shooters & base building. It has a sliver of RTS element to it as you can eventually spawn bots & mechs that you can order around the map and adjust turret & equipment settings in an overhead view. When you get them, you can also pilot the mechs (only three flavors, no customization), which is a lot of fun after being a human for so long.

The core gameplay loop is to create/update/change your character/gun/base and deploy into progressively harder maps using points of interest and limited randomization. After you clear a map you have to pass a "waves of enemies" battle based on how much loot you collected, with some lasting over almost 14 minutes. If your base and character survive, you use the loot you collected to enhance your base, research new parts to build with, improve your gun, and go back out to do it again.

It's worth a look at the Steam Page, at least.

Caution: The English translation & voice acting is "nails on a chalkboard" bad - like they used voiceover apps instead of actors. When I switched to native Chinese with English subtitles, it stopped hurting my ears and was fine.

[Blackhawk]

That actually looks like it might be right up my alley. How viable is it to go solo?

[Paingod]

It's 100% viable solo. I think Co-op play was an aftertought. The people who join your game as the host don't get storyline progress from helping you, just material rewards. I've avoided random PUG's because I've read that if the host dumps you or someone jumps the Evac ship and leaves you behind, you might as well have not played that session.

I'm hovering around 200 hours now and all I really have left is to see how long my base designs can survive infinite waves of enemies that get progressively stronger.

Some continued notes:

• This is a very grindy game, but in a way that didn't bother me so much. Learning the limited set of Points of Interest meant I could quickly run to where materials and loot were likely to be stored on each map, which speeds up subsequent runs.
• If seeing the same 20 or so maps & handcrafted waypoints (broken out by sections, so like 4 on easy, 4 on medium, 5 on hard, 6 on very hard) bugs you, this game isn't for you. I'm sure they'll add more, but what's there is perfectly functional - but repetitive (see above).
• It's not a perfect game, but it's been a fun game.

Some tips for new players, should anyone choose to give it a whirl

• About 2 minutes in, when you get tired of the terrible voice acting, switch the audio to native Chinese for dialog with English subtitles. It makes the game 100% better.
• If you happen to fall through the map or get otherwise stuck, exiting to the menu and coming back will reset your progress on that map and unstick you. This has happened to me a half dozen times in my travels, but always when I was moving somewhere well off a normal path.
• Materials; gained by killing enemies (more for Weakpoint kills), cutting down trees, harvesting ore, disassembling tires, and breaking down wrecks. Manually cutting down trees pays for itself and gives you excess if you process the lumber back into Energy at your base. Eventually, when you have the Battering Ram mod, you might consider shooting down trees/wrecks for quicker materials gains with no Energy expense. Even later, gunning down trees/wrecks with the Ranger Mech is more effective & faster.
• Power; gained by converting Materials into Energy at your base, used to traverse the map and trigger special effects on your base buildings. Batteries are the storage medium for this. Don't run out or your Core Power is diminished.
• Core Power; determines the radius your base will harvest things by itself, enhanced defense for players inside, and boosts damage to turrets as it increases (to a point; I've read 3000 Core is the cap on damage boosting). If you want to see the direct effect on a turret of each Core Power increment, look at the tower's Config in the base building screen after adding more Core Power.
• Tower config; access directly on the towers in Command Mode or in Base design. Essential for getting different towers to prioritize different enemies at varying ranges. Maybe you don't want your big guns to target small enemies, so you turn that off. Any tower's default config will work for a while, but eventually you'll want to start specializing rapid fire for small enemies vs. heavy hitting for larger ones.
• Cargo Drones are good to ensure something gets saved if you fail. If you're looking for specific materials, consider sending them off with a Drone after you get them. When you do this they don't count against your final total for the last fight on that map, nor do they get considered for bonuses.
• The final fight on a map is determined by how greedy you were and what hazards you agreed to undertake. You can see how long the fight will last based on the loot you're collecting, which stages it will enter into, and what hazard cards you're working with. On the fight config screen, you can also remove a hazard by right-clicking it and paying 10 Energy to remove it. Conversely, you can spend an increasing amount of Energy to add hazards if you want a richer reward.
• If you die at any point in the mission, you lose everything you didn't send off with a Cargo Drone. If you survived to Evac, you lose the materials collected but escape with your personal inventory.
• Yes, staying out of bounds long enough is instantly fatal - not just quickly damaging or anything survivable like that. It does try and warn you, but it doesn't say what exactly will happen.
• Guns, Mods, & Armor can be "Insured" so they stick with you if you do die. Selling any piece of equipment provides Equipment currency, which is only used to insure things. Right-click on something to Insure it. Insurance only prevents the item's loss once. After that you'll need to re-insure it. The game absolutely does not call attention to this mechanic until you die and you're wondering where your gear went.
• Not every Operative you recruit is created equal. They're randomly generated from 4 classes with 2 abilities in each, but the recruits will have different assortments of sub-abilities. My favorite Operatives provide complete Mech combat bonuses, which is not something you see up front. Ultimately, you only really need to keep around 1 Operative that's skilled in each of your Base enhancements and one or two you intend to use to fight with. The rest can be retired Honorably. Recruitment tokens are rare rewards, but can be bought in the Trade Center if you reroll the list & get lucky.
• If an Operative (aside from the Main Character) dies, they're revived through the Medical Ward.
• Research has two values: Research & Time. Amusingly, time can be purchased to speed up research. Drones (found/captured from tower POI's) are great for Time trade-ins. So are MGT access cards. So are some materials Trades once you unlock the barter system. Time is the "Clock" icon on items. Research is the "Atomic" symbol on items. If you lack the Time, it's a real value that ticks by - each step you take on a map between sections is one "Day" (or one unit of Time). You can quickly run maps until you drain your batteries and then run the final fight, which should be easy since you hardly collect anything from Instant Looting.
• Speaking of research: Blueprints. Blueprints are static on the maps, so you need to explore to find them all. If you're missing a Blueprint from one area, visit each uniquely named POI (School, Mountain Pass, Town Outskirts, et) in that area and Scan with your base (see below). Most blueprints are hidden from normal exploration, in out-of-the-way locations or on top of things you wouldn't normally climb up on top of. There are base paint Blueprints. Look around your base for some of those. Some blueprints can only be acquired if you "Craft" specific items - so try making one of everything you can at least once, even if you have a lot of them from normal collection. Some blueprints are on maps you pass through once during the story and never get to visit again. If you miss those, they'll be randomly added to a later map so you can still find them.
• Before you leave a map and call for Extraction, do a sensor sweep with your Tower from Command Mode. It costs 2 Energy, but reveals anything inside your Core Power radius you hadn't collected. If your Core Power is high enough, you can scan almost the entire map in one pass.
• When you get to the final fight on a map sequence, number (CRTL+Num) your critical systems in Command Mode for quicker access. I number my ammo generators "1" with Healing Grenades as "2" so I can quickly run them with M>1/2>Z to trigger their effects.
• You can number your base turrets and structures as well, if only to quickly see how they're all doing for health/ammo.
• Preload ammo into the Autoloaders for your turrets. Keep your ammo generators full unless you need to use them ammo in them. They keep their production between maps and getting to the end with a full battery of ammo boxes can save your life.
• The Xen Gun system can be confusing.
  • Attack is your hitting power, a damage adjustment.
  • Crit Chance & Crit Damage are obvious.
  • Weakpoints are generally 'glowing' red spots on enemies, always a Critical hit
• Some Xen/Gun Mod notes
  • Xen Efficiency means a mod enhances an effect - more healing done, longer duration, more ammo transferred - it has zero effect on damaging effects.
  • Chain (the mod, not the attack) causes your gun to hit an extra time for a single trigger pull.
  • Attacks: Light/Piercing/Blunt are added damage but not great damage by themselves. A note, though, that a Light/Fast attack that has a good stack of Piercing and Chain on it can be a boss melter as they often have large weakpoints.
  • Most effects are obvious with testing outside of that.
  • You can test-fire any gun on your character, but it's only accessible from the Xen modification menu - look for "Shooting Range" in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
• Bullets do drop over time, but each shot type has different ranges and projectile speeds. Heavy Shot drops slightly over long distances. Light shot drops steeply and you need to aim well above a distant target.
• Guardian Bots are a good mid game addition, and can be directed to move and attack or follow things in the Command Mode. Same for Cataphract Mechs, but they're late game. The Pack Mule bot is helpful to carry goods between stages.

[Blackhawk]

ITAD wishlisted for now. I will have to wait for a sale, but it looks like a lot of fun.

[Paingod]

ITAD wishlisted for now. I will have to wait for a sale, but it looks like a lot of fun.

It's a good combo of building and organized chaos. All I really have left is seeing how long my latest base designs last against infinite waves and I'm still enjoying that. I don't really know what else to do with it. I would probably be better served stepping back for a few months since the Devs have made it clear they're not done, despite it not being Early Access.